Social media population is 4.2 billion active users.
This means that more than 53% of the world's population has a social media account. Putting it in perspective, that's almost all the population of the continent of Asia. As a new or established business trying to grow an audience, this number implies that your target customer is already somewhere on the internet. This makes joining a social media network a decision that shouldn't be thought about twice.
However, it's crucial for businesses to understand the numbers behind a social media post. In this article, we'll explain everything you need to know about social media analytics. From the importance of using analytics on your social media, to common misconceptions about social media analytics and how to overcome them.
Many people confuse the term social media analytics with social media data. It's very important to note that while the two terms might be similar, they shouldn't be interchangeable. Both social media analytics and data should complement each other. By using both sources of information, business owners are able to obtain a more detailed report on consumer experience and brand value.
What's the difference between social media analytics and social media data?
Social media analytics is the process of gathering and analyzing data and reports based on metrics from one or multiple social media accounts. - Hubspot
Social media data is the information you collect from your social media channels that shows how many users interact in some way. For example, you might have numbers of likes and shares, mentions, impressions, clicks, or new followers in your social media data. - QualtricsXM
Why is social media analytics important?
If you see your social media analytics report and only see numbers, then you are not reading it correctly. Your report should provide you with a story, and it should be a very detailed one, about how your business is developing online, and how customers feel about your company. By understanding these two factors, you will be able to create a well-thought social media strategy with content that engages and convert, hence social media analytics importance.
Social media analytics importance shouldn't be debated, since the insights it provides are the most valuable. These insights are meant to be used as reference points for making strategic business decisions, such as changes to your content strategy, and tracking how the time and effort invested are impacting your return on investments.
In order to get the most out of your analysis, it's important to highlight that consistency is a key player. As your audience grows, you need to determine the time frame between each analysis. Whether is monthly, quarterly, or biweekly, your analysis should be done no matter what. This will allow you to compare its performance in different time periods.
Common myths about social media analytics and how you can solve them
We already discussed the importance of social media and its analytics, however, there are some common misconceptions or myths around social media marketing, that prevent marketers from taking this growth channel seriously.
You need to increase the number of impressions and shares.
While tracking impressions, reach, shares, and clicks are important. They can be considered "vain metrics" this is mainly due to the fact that they do not reflect the impact your social media marketing efforts have on your business itself.
Your social media analytics strategy should focus on gathering in-depth information about your customer and campaigns. A few examples include tracking which campaigns performed better, why a customer likes certain types of posts, and how social media impacts revenue.
A common misconception about social media is that social media analytics can't track your returns on investment.
Having a social media presence is about generating demand and capturing leads, however, your social media analytics strategy should tie your goals to sales and revenue performance indicators instead of focusing only on likes, shares, and the number of followers.
Google Analytics is a powerful tool that can increase the quality of the information gathered. It can be combined with the data collected by your social media to supercharge the insights about your consumers. By mixing both Google Analytics and your social media data, it allows you to perform A/B testing on social media promo posts, and different copies in different geographies.
A good example of how to tie analytics information to sales/revenue KPIs is: to determine the number of sales/profits made after x hours after a social media campaign went live, related to a specific product.
Final thoughts
Social media is one of the main growth channels in today's world, with an increasing audience. As a business owner, you should always track how your time and efforts are impacting costs and revenue. We recommend you integrate a social media analytics tool to track your social media data. This allows you to have a complete overview of your performance and create a social media strategy based on facts instead of guesses.
Find the right social media agency that can help you.
If you need help getting your social media marketing analytics right, start by contacting us and schedule a call!